JK Rowling joins 150 authors and academics calling for an end of ‘cancel culture’

JK Rowling joins Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie among 150 authors and academics in call to defend free speech – after the Harry Potter creator faced barrage of online abuse for voicing views on trans issues

  • Open letter warns the ‘lifeblood of society’ is ‘daily becoming more constricted’
  • Writers ask for leeway for ‘experimentation, risk taking, and even mistakes’
  • Letter goes on to warn Donald Trump represents a ‘real threat to democracy’ 

By Luke May For Mailonline

Published: 02:40 EDT, 8 July 2020 | Updated: 04:15 EDT, 8 July 2020

More than 150 academics and writers including the likes of JK Rowling, Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie have called for an end to ‘cancel culture’.

Ms Rowling and Ms Atwood, the author of The Handmaid’s Tale, have both signed the letter, despite being on opposing sides on trans issues. 

The letter, published in Harper’s calls for: ‘A culture that leaves us room for experimentation, risk taking, and even mistakes.’ 

JK Rowling's signature is one of 150 on an open letter warning of the risk to open debate, while branding US President Donald Trump an 'enemy to democracy'

JK Rowling's signature is one of 150 on an open letter warning of the risk to open debate, while branding US President Donald Trump an 'enemy to democracy'

JK Rowling’s signature is one of 150 on an open letter warning of the risk to open debate, while branding US President Donald Trump an ‘enemy to democracy’ 

The Handmaid's Tale author Margaret Atwood has also signed the letter. On Monday she voiced her support for the trans community by tweeting: 'We're all part of a flowing Bell curve'

The Handmaid's Tale author Margaret Atwood has also signed the letter. On Monday she voiced her support for the trans community by tweeting: 'We're all part of a flowing Bell curve'

The Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood has also signed the letter. On Monday she voiced her support for the trans community by tweeting: ‘We’re all part of a flowing Bell curve’ 

Rowling sparked fury last month when she reacted to an online article titled: ‘Opinion: Creating a more equal post COVID-19 world for people who menstruate’. 

She tweeted her 14.5 million followers: ‘People who menstruate. I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?’ 

On Sunday the author, who also goes by the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, said: ‘Many, myself included, believe we are watching a new kind of conversion therapy for young gay people, who are being set on a lifelong path of medicalisation that may result in the loss of their fertility and/or full sexual function.’

Margaret Atwood voiced her support for the trans community on Monday, tweeting: ‘Biology doesn’t deal in sealed Either/Or compartments. We’re all part of a flowing Bell curve. Respect that! Rejoice in Nature’s infinite variety!’ 

Both authors, joined by the likes of Salman Rushdie, who was accused of blasphemy by the some members of the Muslim faith when his book The Satanic Verses was published in 1988, have supported an open letter published in Harper’s Magazine

The letter opens by praising a ‘moment of trial’ cultural institutions face trial’ in the midst of mass protests for racial and social justice, but warns open debate risks being weakened.  

Salman Rushdie was accused of blasphemy by the some members of the Muslim faith when his book The Satanic Verses was published in 1988

Salman Rushdie was accused of blasphemy by the some members of the Muslim faith when his book The Satanic Verses was published in 1988

Salman Rushdie was accused of blasphemy by the some members of the Muslim faith when his book The Satanic Verses was published in 1988

It reads: ‘As we applaud the first development, we also raise our voices against the second. The forces of illiberalism are gaining strength throughout the world and have a powerful ally in Donald Trump, who represents a real threat to democracy.’ 

It goes on to say: ‘The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted. 

‘While we have come to expect this on the radical right, censoriousness is also spreading more widely in our culture: an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty. 

‘The restriction of debate, whether by a repressive government or an intolerant society, invariably hurts those who lack power and makes everyone less capable of democratic participation. 

‘The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish them away.

‘We refuse any false choice between justice and freedom, which cannot exist without each other. As writers we need a culture that leaves us room for experimentation, risk taking, and even mistakes.’ 

Transgender model and activist Munroe Bergdorf has slammed JK Rowling as ‘dangerous’ and a ‘threat to LGBT people’ in a row over the author’s latest controversial tweets.

The Harry Potter creator likened hormone therapy and surgery for transgender young people to ‘a new kind of conversion therapy’.

Her statements were backed by Baroness Emma Nicholson – who is embroiled in a row with Bergdorf over allegations that the Tory peer bullied her – who dubbed Rowling ‘the very bravest of women’. 

She was also lent support from Walt Heyer, who transitioned to a woman and then back to male who called her ‘my hero’. 

But Bergdorf was quick to slam the author’s statement and wrote: ‘Mark my words. JK Rowling is dangerous and poses threat to LGBT people. 

‘Trans healthcare is not conversion therapy. This is INSANE.’

In a separate Tweet she added: ‘JK Rowling is not a scientist. She is not a doctor. She is not an expert on gender. She is not a supporter of our community. 

The Harry Potter creator likened hormone therapy and surgery for transgender young people to 'a new kind of conversion therapy'

The Harry Potter creator likened hormone therapy and surgery for transgender young people to 'a new kind of conversion therapy'

The Harry Potter creator likened hormone therapy and surgery for transgender young people to ‘a new kind of conversion therapy’ 

‘She is a billionaire, cisgender, heterosexual, white woman who has decided that she knows what is best for us and our bodies. This is not her fight.’

She also called the author an ‘enemy of progress’ and branded her comments ‘evil’. 

But there was support for the writer from Walt Heyer, 80, who transitioned to a woman and then back again to male.

The American, who had 12 years of hormone therapy, backed the Harry Potter creator.

He told the MailOnline: ‘JK is quite correct to equate hormone therapy and surgery to “conversion therapy” very accurately put.

‘The people are having a “row with her” because she is absolutely telling it like it is and frankly JK has become my hero for her willingness to stand up to the nonsense.

‘JK is just getting on with the truth, bravo to her not many have such pluckiness.’

Ms Rowling had written: ‘Many health professionals are concerned that young people struggling with their mental health are being shunted towards hormones and surgery when this may not be in their best interests.

‘Many, myself included, believe we are watching a new kind of conversion therapy for young gay people, who are being set on a lifelong path of medicalisation that may result in the loss of their fertility and/or full sexual function.

She went on to cite articles discussing the long-term effects of both antidepressants and hormone therapies.

She added: ‘None of that may trouble you or disturb your belief in your own righteousness. But if so, I can’t pretend I care much about your bad opinion of me.’  

The authors, journalists and academics calling for an end to ‘cancel culture’  

Elliot Ackerman

Saladin Ambar – Rutgers University

Martin Amis

Anne Applebaum

Marie Arana – author

Margaret Atwood

John Banville

Mia Bay – historian

Louis Begley – writer

Roger Berkowitz – Bard College

Paul Berman – writer

Sheri Berman – Barnard College

Reginald Dwayne Betts – poet

Neil Blair, agent

David W. Blight – Yale University

Jennifer Finney Boylan – author

David Bromwich

David Brooks – columnist

Ian Buruma – Bard College

Lea Carpenter

Noam Chomsky – MIT (emeritus)

Nicholas A. Christakis – Yale University

Roger Cohen – writer

Ambassador Frances D. Cook, ret.

Drucilla Cornell – Founder, uBuntu Project

Kamel Daoud

Meghan Daum – writer

Gerald Early – Washington University-St. Louis

Jeffrey Eugenides – writer

Dexter Filkins

Federico Finchelstein – The New School

Caitlin Flanagan

Richard T. Ford – Stanford Law School

Kmele Foster

David Frum – journalist

Francis Fukuyama – Stanford University

Atul Gawande – Harvard University

Todd Gitlin – Columbia University

Kim Ghattas

Malcolm Gladwell

Michelle Goldberg – columnist

Rebecca Goldstein – writer

Anthony Grafton – Princeton University

David Greenberg – Rutgers University

Linda Greenhouse

Rinne B. Groff – playwright

Sarah Haider – activist

Jonathan Haidt – NYU-Stern

Roya Hakakian – writer

Shadi Hamid – Brookings Institution

Jeet Heer – The Nation

Katie Herzog – podcast host

Susannah Heschel – Dartmouth College

Adam Hochschild – author

Arlie Russell Hochschild – author

Eva Hoffman – writer

Coleman Hughes – writer/Manhattan Institute

Hussein Ibish – Arab Gulf States Institute

Michael Ignatieff

Zaid Jilani – journalist

Bill T. Jones – New York Live Arts

Wendy Kaminer – writer

Matthew Karp – Princeton University

Garry Kasparov – Renew Democracy Initiative

Daniel Kehlmann – writer

Randall Kennedy

Khaled Khalifa – writer

Parag Khanna – author

Laura Kipnis – Northwestern University

Frances Kissling – Center for Health, Ethics, Social Policy

Enrique Krauze – historian

Anthony Kronman – Yale University

Joy Ladin – Yeshiva University

Nicholas Lemann – Columbia University

Mark Lilla – Columbia University

Susie Linfield – New York University

Damon Linker – writer

Dahlia Lithwick – Slate

Steven Lukes –  New York University

John R. MacArthur – publisher, writer

Susan Madrak – writer

Phoebe Maltz Bovy – writer

Greil Marcus

Wynton Marsalis – Jazz at Lincoln Center

Kati Marton – author

Debra Maschek – scholar

Deirdre McCloskey – University of Illinois at Chicago

John McWhorter – Columbia University

Uday Mehta – City University of New York

Andrew Moravcsik – Princeton University

Yascha Mounk – Persuasion

Samuel Moyn – Yale University

Meera Nanda – writer and teacher

Cary Nelson – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Olivia Nuzzi – New York Magazine

Mark Oppenheimer – Yale University

Dael Orlandersmith – writer/performer

George Packer

Nell Irvin Painter –  Princeton University (emerita)

Greg Pardlo – Rutgers University – Camden

Orlando Patterson – Harvard University

Steven Pinker – Harvard University

Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Katha Pollitt – writer

Claire Bond Potter – The New School

Taufiq Rahim – New America Foundation

Zia Haider Rahman – writer

Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen – University of Wisconsin

Jonathan Rauch – Brookings Institution/The Atlantic

Neil Roberts – political theorist

Melvin Rogers – Brown University

Kat Rosenfield – writer

Loretta J. Ross – Smith College

J.K. Rowling

Salman Rushdie – New York University

Karim Sadjadpour – Carnegie Endowment

Daryl Michael Scott – Howard University

Diana Senechal – teacher and writer

Jennifer Senior – columnist

Judith Shulevitz – writer

Jesse Singal – journalist

Anne-Marie Slaughter

Andrew Solomon – writer

Deborah Solomon – critic and biographer

Allison Stanger – Middlebury College

Paul Starr, American Prospect/Princeton University

Wendell Steavenson – writer

Gloria Steinem – writer and activist

Nadine Strossen – New York Law School

Ronald S. Sullivan Jr. – Harvard Law School

Kian Tajbakhsh – Columbia University

Zephyr Teachout – Fordham University

Cynthia Tucker – University of South Alabama

Adaner Usmani – Harvard University

Chloe Valdary

Lucía Martínez Valdivia – Reed College

Helen Vendler – Harvard University

Judy B. Walzer

Michael Walzer

Eric K. Washington – historian

Caroline Weber – historian

Randi Weingarten – American Federation of Teachers

Bari Weiss

Sean Wilentz – Princeton University

Garry Wills

Thomas Chatterton Williams – writer

Robert F. Worth – journalist and author

Molly Worthen – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Matthew Yglesias

Emily Yoffe – journalist

Cathy Young – journalist

Fareed Zakaria

 

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